Ephrem Endale Contributer
Recently a fellow I know had a very nasty experience; nasty in ways he never expected to find himself in. Now the fellow is one you could call a “diligent worker” though this is not a common expression in these days when everybody tries to out their finger on the fast forward button. “Forget about the diligent, hard worker stuff; all you need is finding the short cuts.
Diligent worker! You must be kidding me!” That seems the conventional wisdom in not a few circles. Anyways this fellow mentioned as a diligent worker happens to be a family man with three children and an equally hardworking worker spouse. In times when life is harder and more taxing by the day this family manages to keep the dishes on the dinner table taking things as they come. That of course they are having it all nice and dandy. Not at all!
What’s more this fellow is one member of that fast diminishing species of people who try to stay positive whatever life throws at them. You never hear him saying negative things about others; even about people who seem to dislike him for one reason or another. Especially he is one guy whose self-confidence leads you to ask yourself why you can’t be like him, a confident person walking with chest out and head high despite whatever load life dumps on your shoulders. That is the kind of person he is.
So recently he runs into this childhood friend after a long time. Now these days when you run into an old friend you usually feel rather cheerful as old friends mean so many things. He practically throws himself at the old friend to be met with an icy response. The ‘old friend’ didn’t show any sign of being as joyous as our fellow was.
Somehow they sit in a nearby café, a decision our fellow came to regret. They have hardly begun talking when the guy who by the way looked every bit of someone who is, or thinks he is on cloud nine. He asks our fellow where he was currently worked, and our fellow who was a civil servant tells him. “What, you’re still a civil servant?”
Now it was not hard for the fellow to root out the sarcasm behind the term ‘still.’ It is as if he made some unpardonable sin and hadn’t yet asked to be pardoned. Our fellow throws in his own saying that yes he was a civil servant and intends to stay a civil servant until he retires. In retrospect that might not have been a very good idea as it gave the guy to be his most evil self.
He says something like “When we were children too you didn’t have any passion for improvement.” that did it. Our fellow was beyond himself and admits saying things he would never have thought of under normal circumstances. We’re talking here about a fellow who did everything to earn what he deserves and ensure his family lived a decent life.
The guy then goes on patting his own back claiming he was leading the best life because he had passion and fought for everything. Liar! Lair! The real story was that he was one of those overnight wealthy guys who got where they were through all the wrong, detestable and even criminal things. Our fellow heard a lot of stories about the guy.
Well I told you that when we talk about the fellow we’re talking about one of the most confident souls waling this earth. So it’s only natural to think that the actions of his childhood chum would just be forgotten as soon as they part. No, that didn’t happen. For days he just fumed at being treated in the most disrespectful of ways. By the way their so-called talk continued for most of an hour and the guy continued saying on offence after the other. When they parted finally he threw his most devastating uppercut; “Look, I’m sorry for the life you’re leading. Anytime you need financial help you can call me.” Our fellow said this was a deliberate statement to make him go berserk; well he almost went berserk.
In the first place he said nothing about his life let alone use the word “sorry” to describe it. As if that was not enough the guy offers to give him ‘financial help!’ Put yourself in our fellow’s place and you’d know how that feels.
If you think such guys are too few to be given any consideration then you must be the nicest person around. That’s what they want making holes into your self-confidence and seeing you beaten black and blue psychologically. They try to make a metal mess out of you.
This is one thing we see in politics. In the absence of well-thought-out ideas the narrative turns into personal tirades accusing the other side of committing every sin real or imagined. The narratives completely go out of politics and focus on rudimentary character assassinations. They try to deny you whatever positive attributes you are endowed with. That’s what character assassination is all about, isn’t it? Look at world politics especially at issues like the Ukraine war and the like.
Listen to what one side says about the political or military leaders of the other side and you’d be pardoned to feel the thousand ants ruining all over your spine. At times the narratives sink so low you wonder if there was indeed some invisible force that is messing up with the way our brains work. In the meantime while trying to beat your reputation into a million pieces they paint themselves as the makers and breakers of all and everything.
Now, it might be easy to say, “Oh, forget them, and lead your life the way you deem appropriate.” how wonderful it would have been had things been as easy as we would have wanted them to be. At times even the strongest minds are tested so much they wobble.
Few souls are as evil as those who try to put down others and chip away at their reputation brick by brick for no reason at all! Anyone who tries to put you down brick by brick is nothing other than wicked, for loss of a better term!
The Ethiopian herald April 30/2023